Thanks for all the speedy responses guys it's helped alot. Another question that I have is about the diet and lap band after you reach your target weight. Right now I weigh about 320 and am 6 ft. 2 in. and would like to weigh around 200 or just under. One of the main reasons I am considering this is because the job I want to get in the next year or two will require me to climb telephone poles and work from bucket trucks, a linemen for an electrical company. In order to do this I need to get my weight under control and get my knees back to their original strength before I gained all my weight. If I do ahead with the lap band and reach my target weight of 200, I will start work and will have to remain at that weight in order to continue working as a linemen. Since I am so young and will have a very active job, climbing up and down poles almost everyday, is it possible to have the band loosened so that I could eat so half a normal meal? I honestly believe that once I am smaller and have seen all the benefits of it, that I could control my eating and weight much better especially since I will have to if I want to keep working and earning the high pay I would as a linemen. Sorry for the long post but I have a lot of questions that I would like to get answered.